Book Review: Is Everyone Hanging Out With Me? (And Other Concerns)

I haven't read many funny celebrity books on how they see the world. You know those books that comedians write where it is somewhere between a memoir and stand up but it is in written form. Think Tina Fey's book and Nick Offerman's book and all of Chelsea Handler's books.

Mindy Kaling took my virginity and I loved it. I read "Is Everyone Hanging Out With Me? (And Other Concerns)" in less than a week. I uncontrollably laughed out loud a few times to the point that Jake had to ask me what was so funny. It was relatable and over the top.

Additionally, it is the kind of book that jump starts you into reading. It is quick but smart and long enough to feel like an accomplishment but short enough for immediate gratification. It was the perfect book to jumpstart my Summer reading blitz.

Book Review: Gentlemen of the Road

Michael Chabon is my favorite author. I really liked "Mysteries of Pittsburgh" and "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay". I didn't love "Gentlemen of the Road" because it was too historic. It was based to much in obscure Jewish history. I gave the Wikipedia function on my Kindle a run for its money.

If you enjoy historic fiction or the history of Judaism, you might like this book. If you don't want to have to look up every single word in the dictionary or you aren't super excited about reading something that is entirely too high level, then skip this one and read something else by Chabon.

Book Review: The One Minute Manager

"The One Minute Manager" by Ken Blanchard is a terrible management book that everyone at InsideTrack talks about. It is written as a story about a young man who visits a wise older manager who is rude and condescending but also decides to bestow his gifts of management expertise upon this young moldable man.

The tenanents of a One Minute Manager are One Minute Goal Setting where you write a goal down in 250 words or less to make sure your employee can understand what their task is in a detailed yet concise manner. Second, is the One Minute Praise where you catch someone doing something right at the beginning of working on a new goal and you make sure to draw bring it to their attention by touching them on the shoulder and looking them in the eyes and telling them what they did right. Finally, the One Minute Reprimand happens when the employee should know what they are supposed to be doing and you basically call them out on their shit and touch them while doing this.

Don't read this book. It is weird and it require awkward touching.

Wellness Wednesday: Week 5

So let's call out the ugly truth. I missed last week's post. I have a lot of excuses. I was getting sick. I was tired. I also didn't lose anything so I didn't have anything to be proud of. Same thing today, I didn't lose anything. I am down from 196 to 193. I'm still 9 pounds and I got 7 weeks

I'm going to use the next paragraph to complain. I'm not very excited about going to Jazzercise anymore. I'm having hard time staying true to healthy eating and couting calories. It is hot and I am tired and walking to work seems daunting. I'm not lazy but losing weight while working and owning a dog and going to the gym all seem a little daunting.

I don't have any answers right now. Money is also tight which means that eating healthy is hard because cereal and Healthy Choice are cheaper that chicken breast and root vegetables. I'm just going to speak my truth and eat some sugar-free Cheesecake pudding with strawberries and hope my motivation returns.

Half Year Update

At exactly half a year, I am not necessarily as far as I thought but I am happy with my progress so far. Here is my update:

Done

Doing

Stalled

Stopped

Write more, specifically in this blog

• I am really proud of how often I am coming back here and updating. I am working to make sure there is a weekly topic I am writing about that involves a goal that requires more work. Right now, I am focusing on Wellness Wendesday as a way to track my current work on hitting my goal weight.

Sell one thing on Etsy

• This is a hard one. Tribe Amanda says that I should just start simple by selling some cool vintage things and maybe make some greeting or post cards and some small leather goods and see what happens. That could be cool.

Save $300 in a Christmas fund

• There isn't much money in the account right now and I am hoping that if I get a raise that I can just divert that but I haven't even opened the Savings account yet.

Get another tattoo

• I thought about spending some rent money on getting a banner on either my tricep or my thigh that says "Be Brave". I kind of think that is an awesome story and that I want to do more of what I want and not have regrets. Who knows. Tomorrow is a new day. 

Go surfing

• I don't even know.

One month no spending

• Old news but I am planning to not spend money in August in prep for the big Vegas trip.

Hit my goal weight

• This has been a yoyo so far this year. Right now, I am on track to be at my goal weight when I get to Vegas. You can learn more each Wednesday when I post about my health and weight.

Knit something other than a neck warmer

• I still have the same 25% sitting in the same drawer since my quarter birthday post. Oops.

Complete 200 Jazzercise classes (113/200)

• I'm still killing it here.

Learn to make sausage w/ casing

• This was fun and I will never make sausage again because it is gross.

Teach Girlfriend 3 new tricks

• So Girlfriend can "go night night" and "shake" and "switch" now (which is just shake with the other paw). I need to get Jake to make a video with me. 

Read 12 books (4/12)

• So I am in the middle of a reading blitz right now to get caught back up but I am at 4/12 and will finish another tonight. I think I can possibly be back on track by the end of the summer. Fingers crossed.

Go to the opera/ballet/symphony

• This isn't exciting to me anymore.

Eat rabbit

• There was a perfect moment in Canada where they had rabbit at a tapas bar and my mom got really excited and had me order it so I could cross another thing off my list. It was the perfect moment to make it happen and rabbit tastes like lean and juicy chicken and I am really glad I didn't spend $40 on a whole rabbit.

Camp with Jake more

• Summer is hear and we don't have any plans to do this anytime soon. I did buy a magazine about the best camping sites.

Watch all Disney animated movies (There are 53 counting Frozen.) (27/53)

• I am staying on track and trying to not just fly though these with no rhyme or reason. I am also staying current on my posts for the most part.

Run a race

• I didn't sign up for any of the $5 5ks. Oops. I am also not excited about this either.

Put money in a savings account aside from my Christmas fund, possibly using the week in the year method

• I haven't done anything. I will mark this as complete if I can just open and account and divert a small portion of my direct deposit to the savings account. It is easy and terrifying.

Do ten diamond push-ups successfully with perfect posture

• I stopped doing push ups because they are hard and I felt sad because I wasn't progressing like I wanted. 

Learn the foxtrot with my friend Kate

• Nothing has been done.

Make some sort of fermented beverage

• Done and posted about.

Email my grandma 4 times

• I think I just have to email her one more time and can mark this off. 

Mail cards to my mom, dad, brother, grandma and grandpa for their birthdays and Mother's/Father's day

• My mom got her mother's day card late but I sent it on time. My dad said on the phone that he was impressed because this was the first time his card came on time. Great. 

Get my oil changed 4 times

• I need to do this ASAP.

Get a passport

• Arrived.

Use my passport to leave the country

• Used.

Write a children's story

• Just floating ideas.

Play in a soccer game

• Still nothing but I could probably get Jake's nieces and nephews in on this.

Hike in the desert

• Nothing yet.

Unsure Existentialism

I am not really sure what existentialism is. I mean I could Google it. In fact, I just did to make sure I spelled it right. I saw "I Heart Huckabees" and I think that movie had something to do with existentialism but I was also in college and everything blew my mind at that time.

I think I might be thinking a lot about existentialism but I am not sure. This is why I bring this up. I think that I just like thinking that I think I am being existential and therefore don't want to look it up for fear that I am wrong. What if the internet just says that I am not being existential and that I am just a dumb privileged white boy? That would make me sad and I am already prone to sadness enough as it is. I don't need the internet reminding my that I am not a snowflake.

This isn't supposed to be a post where I get all down on myself so I am just going to draw the line there on that front. I did go to a Manic Pixie Dream Girl movie today about love and abortion and those kinds of movies make me have feeling about being connect and everyone's experience existing in a vortex and just being spit back out through different bodies. Here is a list of movies that make me think like this:

• Away We Go
• 500 Days of Summer
• Garden State
• The Royal Tennenbaums
• Almost Famous

There are probably a lot more but that list got boring. I am sure there a lot more. I really wanted to put Star Wars or Jurassic Park on that list to fuck with you but I didn't because I felt like that list should be really true to life. I want someone to find that list in 200 years and think that those movies are the greatest works of our time.

After the movie, I came home and walked the dog around the neighborhood and I realized how great everything in the entire world was and how naive and silly that was but that it was great that I could feel like everything was beautiful and know that not everything is beautiful at the exact same time. I walked the dog who did not really need a walk by all the bars so I could see all the people and their Saturday outfits (white Converse are really cool right this minute) and their booze smiles and the dim neon and just kind of soak it up. I thought about how this is the kind of shit I am going to tell my nieces and nephews about in like 20 years when they want to know what Portland was like in the 2010s. It is like how I get really excited when I meet someone who lived in San Francisco in the 60s and 70s and I ask them a million questions. I needed to walk around tonight so I could just see everything so I could describe it to Jake's nephew Jack when he is 23 and thinks Boise, ID or Cheyenne, WY are the coolest city in the world.

I am really happy to be here today. 

Wellness Wednesday: Week 3 (On Thursday)

I am on trackhaving lost another pound this week putting me under 10 pounds from my goal. Last night wasn't a great night and today has been a bit worse so I am going to keep this short and say that amongst all of this shit I have to wade through right now it is nice to have this once thing.